Toward the 50th Anniversary Collection 1: Self/Action

The National Museum of Art, Osaka is dedicated to collecting and exhibiting Japanese and international works produced in the modern age, largely from 1945 to the present day. However, there are also a number of pieces that date further back.

As the museum gears up to celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2027, this commemorative exhibition will re-examine its vast collection to piece together a narrative of the history and development of art. The main focus is to look at the social and historical contexts in the years leading up to the museum’s opening in 1977, and how they shaped the art of that time.

This 50th anniversary exhibition is split into two parts. The first, running from July 19 to November 3, gathers around 140 works by more than 80 artists. The oldest piece in the museum’s collection, the Post-Impressionist ‘Preparation for a Banquet’ by Paul Cézanne from the 1890s, serves as the starting point. With the curation’s chronological flow through to the mid-1960s, visitors can simultaneously learn about the different artistic movements during that time period.

Furthermore, this exhibition also sheds light on marginalised names in art history. Here, the final section of the showcase is dedicated to works produced right up to the mid-1960s by women artists who made a mark in postwar art.

Some of the artists to watch out for include Wassily Kandinsky, Pablo Picasso, Marcel Duchamp and Willem de Kooning, as well as Yoko Ono and Yayoi Kusama.

The exhibition is closed on Mondays (except July 20, September 21, October 12 and November 2) and July 21, September 24 and October 13.